On the road to preservation, silage goes through four phases: aerobic, fermentation, storage and, finally, feedout. During the anaerobic phase, the crop uses up sugars and protein while it respires. At...
by Amanda Smith, Associate Editor We've all seen silage spoilage. The flecks of colored mold sprinkled throughout a bunker. The layer of discoloration across the middle of a face. The thick, black crust...
"Too wet, too dry and just right," Goldilocks would say when evaluating corn silage, with just right being our goal! Growing high-yielding, high-quality corn is only half the battle when it comes to silage...
Hoard's Dairyman Webinar Archives April 13, 2015: "Storing and preserving next year's silage" presented by Mike Hutjens, University of Illinois brought to you by Lallemand Animal Nutrition
Effluent planning can be done now to make harvest easier this year Growing up on a small dairy farm, silage effluent wasn't something I was overly aware of other than it smelled, and I tried not to get...
Make no bones about it; winter has arrived. The season's early onset, on the heels of a late growing season, has created its share of problems, as corn silage acres across the Midwest are left standing....
Haste makes waste. An idiom that's long been applied to children completing their household chores is just as relevant to our corn silage harvest and storage. Occasionally, in the haste to stay ahead of...
Across much of the U.S., corn silage harvest is slowly wrapping up. Poor weather conditions during last year's growing season left corn silage inventories tight for many producers. Due to this, there may...
Silage piles aren't always a best buy. Producers and consultants often jump to the conclusion that flat feed storage is the most economical. They could be wrong
With half of the country now in a drought disaster area, if there was ever a year for dairy farmers to take reducing silage losses seriously, this is it. The most silage you have is when it is standing...
The goal of silage face management is to minimize exposure to oxygen. In the presence of oxygen, yeast can metabolize lactic acid (a strong acid that keeps the silage pH low). When pH rises, undesirable...
Beginning about 10 years ago, considerable field interest surfaced regarding harvesting corn silage at higher chop heights, primarily in an effort to improve neutral detergent fiber digestibility (NDFD)....
Hoard's Dairyman Webinar Archives July 11, 2011: Corn Silage: Getting it Right! presented by Mike Hutjens of the University of Illinois Brought to you by Biotal Forage Inoculants. (www.qualitysilage.com)...
A major goal of corn silage making is to reduce oxygen and raise acidity rapidly so that lactic acid bacteria grow to stabilize and preserve or "pickle" the silage. Often, people believe that corn silage...
Little details make all the difference in baleage. Making bale silage is a combination of science and art. Mastering the details will lead to the best possible forage. A good tight bale of hay silage with...
Bale silage a great option in wet climates. Mastering the fermentation cycle will lead to the best possible product for your herd. A group of farmers and livestock producers gathered at the historic Hereth...